Leelanau sweet cherries are ready to pick, and in plenty of time for the Fourth of July.
Sweets got an early start with a warm spring, and never looked back, according to Centerville Township grower Greg Williams. He expects crews on Monday to start hand-picking Benton variety sweets, which are promoted as having a “rich mahogany skin color and pure flavor.” They ripen about a week earlier than better-known varieties of sweet cherries.
It’s nail-biting time for Williams, who’s battling disease, pests and a labor shortage on the eve of the harvest.
“I’m concerned with everything this year,” he said.
Williams’ orchards are expected to produce 30,000 pounds of sweet cherries and another 100,000 pounds of Balaton cherries for fresh markets. Most will be shipped via refrigerated trailers to New York City for sale in grocery stores.
But not all. “We’ll have sweets Monday at our fruit stand in Cedar,” Williams reported. “And we have farmers who take some and sell them at farm markets.”
The Cedar fruit stand, located across from the Post Office, has been a busy place. A former employee of Williams’ started a strawberry farm near Kingsley and has been selling up to 200 quarts of them daily at Williams’ stand.
Moisture — too much rather than too little — has challenged cherry growers in Leelanau County.
Through Tuesday, precipitation had been recorded for eight out of nine days with the biggest being a 1.48 inch dump that dominated Saturday. Readings were taken at the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Station.
High humidity and rain jump-start growth in European brown rot, a fungal disease, and Spotted-wing Drosophila, a fruit fly. Both are non-native.
The moisture also threatens to crack the skin of sweet cherries. Williams said as of Tuesday morning before another thunderstorm blew across the peninsula that his sweets were holding up.
“The problem is that now you have to spray after rains. I think that at some point the quality isn’t going to last because of the rain. We could end up with softer skin with the tarts. When you get those dry spells they toughen up the skin,” he said.
Williams added that his farm operation could use more workers, most of whom are employed through a program administered by the U.S. Department of Labor.
